The present invention relates to an inlet head housing for a pair of axial separating rotors.
Document WO 2010/086063 A1 makes known an inlet head housing and a self-propelled combine harvester. The combine harvester comprises an axial separating device having a pair of separating rotors, which are arranged with one end thereof in the inlet head housing. A flat inlet section is located in a region in front of the openings of the separating rotors in each case, through which crop is fed to the respective separating rotor. The crop is fed by a tangentially conveying impeller, which is arranged above the inlet section of the openings of the separating rotors. Given that the separating rotors are spaced apart from one another, the inlet head housing has a ramp-shaped housing section, the width of which substantially corresponds to the distance between the two separating rotors. This ramp-shaped housing section, which rises in the vertical direction, has a concave profile and is used for support when the fed crop is separated, in order to evenly load the separating rotors with crop. A deflection element is arranged above the ramp-shaped housing section, on the side of the inlet head housing opposite the inlet sections. The deflection element redirects the crop in the circumferential direction of the impeller that is not separated by the ramp-shaped housing section, but rather is pushed upward along the surface of the housing section. The crop redirected by the deflection element arrives in front of or on top of the impeller, which combines this crop with crop that is newly picked up by the combine harvester. The crop is then fed back to the separating rotors.
The disadvantage of this deflection element is that the crop that could not be separated by the ramp-shaped housing section between the separating rotors due to moisture or straw length is fed back to the feed roller, in order to be separated in at least one more feed attempt. This procedure results in a loading of the impeller that is not inconsiderable.